WELLSBURG — A Brooke County jury will reconvene today to hear further testimony in a case in which a Steubenville man has been accused of holding a minor against her will and sexually assaulting her.

In opening statements to the jury on Tuesday, Brooke County Prosecutor Allison Cowden said Floyd Cochran, 40, of Steubenville offered a then-16-year-old girl a ride home from the Weirton restaurant where they both worked in early March 2023.

But Cowden said the girl found the front passenger seat of his car filled with trash, so she got into the back seat, where Cochran joined her, after locking the doors, and forced himself on her.

Cochran is standing trial on charges of abduction and third-degree sexual assault, for which he could face two to 15 years in jail.

Sean Logue, Cochran’s attorney, told the jury the alleged victim voluntarily entered his client’s vehicle and never told him no when he made sexual advances toward her.

“He is truly innocent. He really is not guilty,” he said, later adding, “This isn’t a case of he said, she said.”

The alleged victim, now an adult, testified that Cochran got into the driver’s seat, then drove his car to a more isolated area of the restaurant’s parking lot, then stopped after telling her he needed to talk to her.

She said Cochran then entered the back seat, which made her nervous.

The woman said she tried to open the rear door close to her but couldn’t. She said the lock was the type that descends within the door when locked and may have been in a child safety mode activated from the front seat.

She said Cochran rubbed her inner thighs and pulled a condom out.

“He said, ‘This is going to happen. It’s supposed to happen,’ and I said, ‘You can’t do this. I’m a minor,'” she said.

She said he insisted and she saw no one outside.

“At this point, I felt like there was nothing I could have done to prevent what was happening next,” the alleged victim said.

Much of the other testimony focused on how the alleged incident was reported and investigated by Weirton Police.

Retired Weirton Police detective Gerard Spencer testified that a co-worker reported suspicions of sexual contact between Cochran and his co-worker.

Spencer said he and Stevie Jo Banannio, a Weirton police officer serving as prevention resource officer at the school attended by the alleged victim, questioned her about it in the principal’s office and she denied it.

She said afterward, she told the truth to a couple of friends, who convinced her to see Banannio again.

From there, she underwent a forensic interview at the Comfort House, a child advocacy center involved with such investigations.

Cowden presented a videotaped interview by Spencer of Cochran, in which he denied any sexual contact with the alleged victim and to driving her home while stating, “There’s something going on, but I can’t say she’s making up anything because I don’t know.”

Spencer testified a rape kit wasn’t completed because the incident had occurred three weeks earlier.

Through his cross-examination of the two officers, Logue suggested police could have sought evidence such as images from nearby surveillance cameras or interviews with others employed at the restaurant.

Asked why she didn’t come forward sooner, the woman said she didn’t want to be viewed as a victim and judged by others.